In response to the nonwovens market’s need for expanded formulation options with fine fibres, Eastman Chemical Company is enhancing its platform capability with a 4.5-micron diameter PET microfibre, specifically designed for wetlaid processing.
This addition to the range of Eastman Cyphrex microfibres comes less than 12 months after the launch in April 2013 of its commercially available 2.5-micron diameter microfibre. When blended, these highly uniform microfibres can allow the formulator to help pinpoint permeability and control pore size, resulting in greater precision for targeted functionality, Eastman said this week.
The introduction of this larger, 4.5-micron (0.2-denier), round PET fibre opens up the space formulators can access with regard to targeting specific pore sizes and desired permeability in their media, 'making it a highly suitable material for filtration applications'.
In addition, it opens more possibilities for manufacturers, and can provide even better formation, or sheet uniformity, when compared with the 2.5-micron (0.06-denier) fibre.
“The new 4.5-micron fiber demonstrates our capability of changing size, and manufacturers can use this unique fibre to pinpoint permeability and pore size and to improve media uniformity even further,” said Fred Dulin, director, microfibers platform, Eastman.
“These results demonstrate that significant value can be created in nonwoven formulations through specific design of fibre size characteristics and insights provided by industry-standard application development capabilities.”
